Counselling session can facilitate the process of overcoming or working through personal issues from everyday hardship as well as potentially life threatening situations. This reflective essay will analyse a counselling session that I have attended with a professional counsellor. Her name was Hend. The session was to be recorded so I can refer to particular examples during the session. In this reflective essay I will give an overview of the counselling session as well as a discussion of my feelings before, during and after the session. Key skills used by the counsellor such as active listening, reflective skills and empathy will be explained, supported with verbatim examples from the session. Furthermore, the overall experiences and response to the session will be provided. The theories of recognised intellectuals in the field of counselling and psychotherapy will support my material and facilitate in learning the basic skills that I need to poses as a future counsellor. I attended a counselling session as I was required in order to complete this assignment. The counsellor that I saw has been working in a Community Mental Health Institution for many years. She also had a private room where I had my counselling session. The issue that was discussed with the counsellor was my fears and concerns about my physical health. I have had this problem for many years now, since I was very young. At some stage, when I was studying in high school my condition got better, but a few years after that I started getting even worse. I have had many blood tests, heart checks and nothing showed any major concern. This has been affecting my life as I cannot do things that I enjoy doing. I always have the thought in my mind that I have some serious disease or that I will faint and I am constantly checking my heart rate. The counsellor has helped me to become more aware of that thought and taught me some techniques on how to prevent that thought from developing. It was a rainy Saturday morning when I attended the counselling session. I have never received any professional counselling previously. I had feelings of nervousness and anxiousness on my way to the counsellor as I was not sure where to start or what to expect from that counselling session. It seemed like I was trying to plan in my head what I was going to mainly focus on and I was also thinking about what specific questions that she may ask. I was concerned about talking too openly with a person that I was going to meet for the first time in my life. Her room was located on the fifth floor in a private building. I arrived little early and waited for her in the corridor. Couple of minutes after I arrived, the lift door opened and this middle aged Lebanese woman came out and greeted me with a warm smile on her face. She leaded me to her room and I sat down in the waiting area while she prepared her room for our session. My feelings of anxiousness dropped down to some level because the counsellor seemed much nicer and accepting in person, as I did not get that impression when I spoke to her on the phone to arrange my appointment. She offered me a tea or coffee. Harms (2007) suggests that the welcoming skills are very important especially at the first session as it helps clients relax and start feeling comfortable. At the beginning of the counselling session the feelings of being anxious and nervous were still present. Furthermore, expressing some of my emotions and experiences made me feel a bit uncomfortable and it seemed like I was scared of how the counsellor will perceive me. However, Hand possessed valuable skills of understanding and accepting. Being non-judgemental with unconditional positive regard, which requires completely accepting the client as the person they are, is one of the essential counsellor’s quality for effective counselling according to Rogers (Geldard & Geldard, 2012). Hence, the counsellor’s skills of being non-judgemental with unconditional positive...

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